D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 1944 Trap Plans
Chapter 1944: Chapter 1944 Trap Plans
— Kat —
Kat was having a lot more trouble than she’d planned for. With simply turning into water off the table, and turning into smoke likely to trigger the same set of complaints, Kat had a rather simple idea for her backup plan. Dislocating her thumb. It would probably hurt but Kat was well used to pain and her regeneration meant there would be no long term consequences. Even if there was the potential for them, a checkup from Thyme would’ve cleared them all up. It was a safe, reasonable way to do things in her mind. With a bit of lubricant from that box added in it was the perfect plan.
The problem? The restriction band. Kat had learnt soon that her plan wasn’t quite going to work. While limited to Rank 2 strength and unable to do anything but awkwardly line up her finger and pull… she couldn’t exert enough power. With a free access to her hand it was probably possible, and without the band it definitely was. With her hand trapped inside a box and limited in strength? Kat was finding it potentially impossible. Perhaps with enough time and effort she could figure something out… but presumably a normal person could get out of this.
The hacksaw box was a dead end. If she couldn’t even dislocate her finger she certainly wasn’t going to be able to cut through any bone with what might be a pretty average hacksaw. Plus, Lily would be very annoyed with her if she even made the attempt. So now Kat was carefully checking all the various lubricants for what she thought was the best one while trying to work out how the various metal bits and bobs would help her open up the box.
— Lily —
While Kat was dealing with being trapped in a box, Lily and Hedera had finally finished with the slide. Unlike Kat who had been launched out at high speed, for Hedera and Lily it had been a slow drop off. They’d gotten through the room with the holes, the room with the sharp corners, and a room filled with arrow launchers. Funnily enough, that last one had been the easiest to get through. Just laying down meant they all went over your head. It also sped you up… but apparently Trapmaster was feeling generous.
Lily could feel Kat off to the side and wondered how easy it would be to meet back up as she hopped out of Hedera’s armour. Before she could spend too much time thinking on Kat, Trapmaster’s video came on the screen. A quick check with Kat revealed it was the same video as Kat had seen, exactly.
So Lily turned to Hedera and asked, “Alright so what’s the plan,”
“Um… shouldn’t we be watching that?” asked Hedera.
Lily shook her head, “Kat already saw this video and it’s all common sense stuff alongside a bit of background. Basically, we’re in a series of traps some dwarf came up with because they were a bit too into traps. They also don’t know how deadly they are because somehow he managed to make it to at least Rank 2, probably 3 or 4. Which… is a thing.”
“I’ve heard it can happen,” said Hedera with a shrug. “Most people need to struggle for Ranks but some individuals are just blessed.” Hedera notably wasn’t looking at Lily while voicing such thoughts.
Lily wasn’t looking at Hedera though, she was currently feeling the need to stretch. She’d been stuck inside of Hedera’s armour where she was rather squished. Being held in place for so long without being able to nap just felt wrong to her, so now Lily was taking the time to stretch her limbs. “Fair fair. It’s not too important I don’t think. What I really mean by ’what are we going to do’ is do you think we should try to dig through the walls towards Kat? Or just do the tests properly?”
“Could we break our way through? And how far away even IS Kat?” asked Hedera.
“Hmm… not sure on the first, and as for the second? A lot closer than I’d have thought. She’s… maybe a hundred metres or so that way? About a floor upwards? Maybe?” said Lily as she gestured off to the opposite wall from where the screen sat. Once Hedera had the idea, Lily went back to stretching.
Hedera looked at the walls. “Yeah… I really don’t know if we can…”
“That’s fair. Considering Kat got yelled at for trying to bypass a trap by turning into water, an arguably valid solution to the puzzle, I can see the walls being either too strong or their being punishments for trying to skip things,” explained Lily.
“That was probably important to know,” said Hedera with a deadpan look. “Why didn’t you mention that before?”
Lily shrugged, “I guess I wanted to see what you’d suggest on the face of it? Or maybe I was looking for an excuse to at least make the attempt? I want to get back to Kat, and I don’t like the fact that she’s currently trapped. Even if it’s not super dangerous it feels wrong that we’re split up like this…”
“If you really want you can probably fly back up the slide,” offered Hedera.
Lily shook her head. “I’m not going to leave you behind like that. Your… maybe not a friend yet but you’re a good team member and I know Kat can take care of herself. If something more serious came up I’d try to rush over there but as annoying as it is listening to Kat occasionally consider cutting her hand off… the box isn’t a deadly problem.”
“Woah, woah, woah. Why is she even thinking about something like that?” asked Hedera.
“Kat’s in a room with a box. She had to stick her hand in, where it gets trapped. The challenge is to get her hand out. Using her transformation abilities is considered cheating, and she can’t currently dislocate her thumb because with the band on she’s not strong enough to damage herself like that.
“She has three boxes to help her escape… and one of them has a number of instruments for cutting off limbs as well as bandaging yourself up afterwards. It’s… not something that I like thinking about but Kat can probably grow her hand back. Luckily for me though, the equipment isn’t good enough for that line of thinking anyway,” explained Lily.
“Yeah because that’s not worrying at all,” remarked Hedera.
“Of course it’s worrying… but it’s also the sort of idea Kat will come up with occasionally. Have you seen her do that trick where she just turns part of her body into water?” asked Lily.
“Not yet,” admitted Hedera. “Why? That seems useful yes?”
“It DOES seem useful… but originally it was massively painful for Kat. If she transformed just part her herself then the spot the water met her flesh burned horribly… because she had a bunch of exposed nerves that were connected to essentially normal water,” explained Lily.
Hedera flinched. “That… that would be hellishly painful,”
“Of course,” agreed Lily. “Kat did figure out the solution to her problem but it wasn’t instant and she just… brushed off that sort of pain. She’s always sort of been like that… but more in things that weren’t going to cause permanent damage. Now that she has regeneration… well nothing can really cause permanent damage so…”
“Ah… yes I suppose I understand what you’re getting at…” mumbled Hedera. She was going to say something else when the screen winked off and the door to the next room opened. Lily transformed and jumped up towards Hedera, intending to rest in her arms. Hedera panicked a bit. Originally going to smack Lily away instinctively before realising what she was about to do and stopping herself.
In the end, Lily had to dig into Hedera’s armour a bit to hold herself upright but Hedera got there eventually. “Why did you do that?” asked Hedera.
Lily sighed and hopped back down to transform. “Remember, this is the person that complained about Kat using her abilities to finish the challenge. I’m not sure if this place is designed for two people to come in at once, and I’m hoping that if I stay in my Memphis form it’ll be less strict.”
“Ah… alright then,” agreed Hedera. Lily transformed and jumped at Hedera once again. This time though, Lily circled around herself first before crouching into an obvious pounce while looking right at Hedera and having her tail point directly at the elf. Just, giving her as much warning as possible before Lily managed to jump up into Hedera’s hands.
*How are things going on your end Kat? Still having issues with the box?*
[Yeah… I’m testing out all the different liquids but I don’t know if any of them are going to be good enough. I’m also not sure where the lock for these lockpicks actually is. It might be on the other side of the box, I can sort of feel something there… but I don’t know how to use these things, and certainly not blind. I think my current best bet is applying one of the… more solid? Viscous? One of those liquids onto the metal sticks and then using that to spread it over my hand.]
*Good luck with that.*
